Picking up sound on the interstate
I am my breath
Letting in waves

There will be time when the sleep I'm in
Covers me whole
Covers me thin

I know I'll wake up old
Forgetting which box this is in
How I will keep you
Just how I left you

Our daughter once told me I know a lot
Now I'm strutting off with more than I've got
A hitchhiker told me I don't talk a lot
It made me feel fine, made me quiet

If you'd of said it right
Instead of painting words white
How I will keep you
Just how I left you
Come on, say it right


Lyrics submitted by rockerbabe99, edited by magnum8

Go On, Say It Lyrics as written by Ryan Dobrowski Aaron Nebeker

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Go On, Say It song meanings
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11 Comments

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  • +1
    My Interpretation

    It is such a clever song about loving, but keeping distance. I think he is talking about hidden love.

    The first verse talks about hiding true feelings, the true "him". The second verse talks about that someone maybe being in the right place, being as happy as can be, but not really knowing whether that's the pinnacle. The third verse underlines his clever way of deceiving and hiding his affection for that someone. The fourth verse hints towards these feelings being very old and the continuation of such forever. All this, while they are existing in their own busy, everchanging lives "we're too fast" compared too "too slow". Then he goes on saying that he's been waiting, but he won't tell unless that someones tells first.

    Interesting part of our lives put in a gorgeous manner.

    pkseliteon December 04, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I see the song as the singer's way of asking someone to be intimate with him and really get to know him... the parts of him that nobody else knows. Almost like he's buried a bone (his true self) and she has to find it by making the effort to get to know the true him. This is something that is understandably difficult for her.

    and just where you are might be the right place might be that sweet space but you don't know

    Here I think he's showing an understanding of her reservations about that level of intimacy.

    look me in the mouth I've got nothing in my smile I've been waiting for you you're just my style

    Then he comforts her by ensuring her that there is nothing to fear... that's the way I like to see it.

    scavicch47on October 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The lyrics here are butchered (in "rockerbabe99's" defense, the track isn't that clear so it makes it difficult to decipher lyrics). The correct lyrics are below:


    Picking up sound on the interstate, I am my breath, letting in waves. There will be time when the sleep I’m in covers me whole, covers me thin. I know I’ll wake up old, forgetting which box this is in. How I will keep you just how I left you. Our daughter once told me I know a lot. Now I’m strutting off with more than I’ve got. A hitchhiker told me I don’t talk a lot. It made me feel fine, made me quiet. If you’d of said it right instead of painting words white… How I will keep you just how I left you. Come on, say it right.


    As for interpretation, I am at a loss as of now. It is almost as if he is singing about aging, and wanting to keep his memories intact as he gets old. I don't know. Great song though. I hate the Shins, and while this song reminds of something The Shins might play, Blind Pilot does a great job at making a sweet-sounding melancholy song.

    mjennin23on August 25, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    appreciate the finer memories in life, don't grow up too fast....?

    cakehoeon October 09, 2008   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning

    This song is a story about a man leaving his family. How it all shook out and how it all's gonna shake out. The narrator, played by Nebeker, hates what he's becoming but does it anyway.

    He's driving away, picks up a hitch hiker. He & the now former Mrs. Narrator have a daughter. The daughter thinks he's tops, but he knows better.

    MickTon January 10, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is so beautiful.

    groupieon April 12, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    I think it's more than that though... I agree that it's about leaving someone, but I think that it kind of centers on how when you've been away for something for a while, or grown old and let memory get to things, you forget all the details about something, and you just remember them for one impression, one singular idea. You don't realize how they have changed, or all of the things that once tied you to them.

    But if you don't 'paint the words white', if you don't blanche out all of their color, their vigor, their passion- if you don't let the memory fade with age, and you remember all of the details, then they will always be to you what they were when you left them.

    The same with the hitchhiker and the little girl: He becomes to them what they think of him.

    kels327on April 14, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    'look me in the mouth i've got nothing in my smile i've been waiting for you you're just my style'

    kills me

    astrydrmatterson July 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Not really an interpritation, but I just read this here:

    laist.com/2009/08/03/meet_israelnebeker-_lead_singer_o.php

    "Was "Go On Say It" based on an actual incident?

    Well, it's really a bit of both. The inspiration came from me being really furstrated with a relationship that I was in. I felt like we were parting ways and neither of us really wanted to, you know? She said something to me that out of context was such a reasonable, sane thing, but the way she said it really upset me. I remember thinking, "My whole life after this will be different." Just because of the way she said that one thing. The story in the song is fiction, but the feeling within it is based on that moment."

    Kachoozon August 05, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    I must have a sick mind. I thought buried a bone was a sexual innuendo. To me this song is about infidelity.

    Coffeejunkie891on March 12, 2010   Link

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